Team counseling in prenatal evaluation: the partnership of the radiologist and genetic counselor.

Fetal medicine programs within children's hospitals have been developed to ensure access to pediatric specialists across multiple disciplines. The cases that present to these programs are usually complex and require involvement of a multidisciplinary care team. Although some providers on the team limit their focus to their pediatric specialty when counseling patients, the radiologist and genetic counselor have a distinct perspective allowing them to take the larger picture into account in the evaluation of the fetus. As first responders, they come together to review images and identify which consultants are most appropriate to counsel the families, and they can help guide patient discussions. In this paper we demonstrate how the combined expertise of the genetic counselor and pediatric radiologist can facilitate more accurate diagnoses and guide the appropriate management of complex fetal anomalies.

Prenatal counseling tools for the pediatric radiologist as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Fetal abnormalities are present in 3-5% of all pregnancies, leading to increased anxiety and the need for important discussions between patients and their care providers. Regardless of the severity of the anomaly, receiving the information can be traumatic for the pregnant patient and her partner. Most physicians who aren't trained to provide prenatal counseling understandably feel uncomfortable with the uncertainty and complex issues that arise in such high-stress counseling sessions. Genetic counselors are specifically trained to counsel patients in the setting of a fetal abnormality; however additional input from pediatric radiologists and other pediatric specialists is invaluable to parents in these situations and such input is an essential part of a team approach to prenatal counseling. The goal of this article is to provide a basic approach to counseling in the prenatal setting for pediatric radiologists and other specialists.